Kogi Polls: APC Has Crashed Out, Declare Wada Winner – PDP Tells INEC

The tussle to replace the deceased Audu Abubakar has gotten a new twist as The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) told the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to announce its candidate the winner of last Saturday’s governorship election in Kogi State, following the death of Abubakar Audu of the All Progressives Congress. Abubakar Audu died hours after the election.

The late candidate was leading at the poll before it was declared inconclusive by INEC. Wada, the incumbent governor, scored the second largest votes in the election.

INEC had already fixed 5 December for a supplementary election in 91 polling units where elections were either not held or cancelled.

The commission had also told the APC to substitute the late Audu with another candidate for the December 5 election.

PDP, released a communique after an emergency national caucus meeting in Abuja on Thursday, maintaining that,

the APC should be excluded from the supplementary election.

The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, who signed the communique said with the death of its candidate during the election, the APC has legally “crashed out” of the race and vowed to challenge INEC’s decision if it insisted on the supplementary election in court.

“The PDP completely rejects the decision of INEC in yielding to the unlawful prompting of a clearly partisan Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mallam Abubakar Malami, to allow APC to substitute a candidate in the middle of an election, even when such has no place in the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

“With the unfortunate death of Prince Abubakar Audu, the APC has no valid candidate in the election, leaving INEC with no other lawful option than to declare the PDP candidate, Capt. Idris Wada, as the winner of the election,” the communiqué said.